Volunteer State Book Award Nominees

1. Volunteer State Book AwardNominees Young Adult Division Grades 7-12 2010-2011

2. Chains byLaurie Halse Anderson • Grades 7-12 • Historical Fiction • After Isabelle and her sister are sold as slaves to Loyalists in New York, the sisters undergo many hardships. Isabelle soons finds herself torn between the rebels and the British.

3. The Boy Who Dared by Susan Campbell Bartoletti • Grades 7-12 • Historical Fiction • In October of 1942, Helmuth, imprisoned for distributing anti-Nazi leaflets, recalls his past life and how he came to dedicate himself to bring the truth about Hitler and the war to the German people.

4. Shiftby Jennifer Bradbury • Grades 8-12 • Mystery • When best friends Chris and Win go on a cross country bicycle trek the summer after graduating and only one returns, the FBI wants to know what happened.

5. What I Saw and How I Liedby Judy Blundell • Grades 9-12 • Historical Mystery • In 1947, with her stepfather Joe back from the war and family life returning to normal, Evie becomes smitten by a handsome young ex-GI who seems to have a secret hold on Joe. She soon finds herself caught in a complicated web of lies whose devastating outcome changes her life and that of her family forever.

6. The Truth about Truman Schoolby Dori Hillestad Butler • Grades 6-8 • Realistic Fiction • Tired of being told what to write by the school newspaper's advisor, Zibby and her friend Amr start an underground newspaper online where everyone is free to post anything, but things spiral out of control when a cyberbully starts using the site to harass one of the popular girls.

7. Gracelingby Kristin Cashore • Grades 8-12 • Fantasy • In a world where some people are born with extreme and often-feared skills called Graces, Katsa struggles for redemption from her own horrifying tallent, the Grace of killing, and teams up with another young fighter to save their land from a corrupt king.

8. The Hunger Gamesby Suzanne Collins • Grades 7-12 • Science Fiction • In a future North America, where the rulers maintain control through an annual televised competition pitting young people from each of the twelve districts against one another, Katniss's survival skills are put to the test when she voluntarily takes her younger sister's place in the arena.

9. Waiting for Normalby Leslie Connor • Grades 6-8 • Realistic Fiction • Addie tries to cope with her mother's erratic behavior and being separated from her beloved stepfather and half-sisters when she and her mother go to live in a small trailer by the railroad tracks on the outskirts of town.

10. The Lincolnsby Candace Fleming • Biography • Grades 6-12 • Designed in a unique scrapbook format, this biography examines the lives of Abe and Mary Lincoln.

11. Beastlyby Alex Flinn • Grades 7-10 • Fantasy • In this modern retelling of Beauty and the Beast, a vain teenaged boy is turned into a monster and must find true love before he can return to his human form.

12. The Graveyard Bookby Neil Gaiman • Grades 6-9 • Dark Fantasy • After the grisly murder of his entire family, a toddler wanders into a graveyard where the ghosts and other residents agree to raise him and teach the ways of the supernatural.

13. Paper Townsby John Green • Grades 9-12 • Mystery • One month before graduating from his Florida high school, "Q" basks in the predictable boringness of his life until the beautiful and exciting Margo, his neighbor and classmate, takes him on a midnight adventure. The next day, she mysteriously disappears, and Q and his quirky friends try to find her.

14. The Repossessedby A.M. Jenkins • Grades 8-12 • Fantasy • A fallen angel, tired of being unappreciated while doing his pointless, demeaning job, leaves Hell, enters the body of a seventeen-year-old boy, and tries to experience the full range of human feelings before being caught and punished, while the boy's family and friends puzzle over his changed behavior.

15. Playing with Matchesby Brian Katcher • Grades 8-12 • Realistic Fiction • While trying to find a girl who will date him, Missouri high school junior Leon Sanders befriends a lonely, disfigured female classmate.

16. Savvyby Ingrid Law • Grades 5-7 • Fantasy • This fantasy novel recounts the adventures of Mibs Beaumont, whose thirteenth birthday has revealed her "savvy"--a magical power unique to each member of her family--just as her father is injured in a terrible accident.

17. The Disreputable History of Frankie Landeau-Banks by E. Lockhart • Grades 7-12 • Realistic Fiction • Frankie plots a series of elaborate and often humorous pranks at her boarding school.

18. Madappleby Christina Meldrum • Grades 10-12 • Mystery • A girl who has been brought up in near isolation is thrown into a twisted web of family secrets and religious fundamentalism when her mother dies and she goes to live with relatives she never knew she had.

19. All We Know of Heavenby Jacquelyn Mitchard • Grades 9-12 • Realistic Fiction • When Maureen and Bridget, two sixteen-year-old best friends who look like sisters, are in a terrible car accident and one of them dies, they are at first incorrectly identified at the hospital, and then, as Maureen achieves a remarkable recovery, she must deal with the repercussions of the accident, the mix-up, and some choices she made while she was getting better.

20. The Adoration of Jenna Foxby Mary E. Pearson • Grades 8 & up • Science Fiction • In the future, when biotechnological advances have made synthetic body parts and brains possible but illegal, Jenna learns a startling secret about what happened to her after a horrible accident.

21. Three Little Words: A Memoirby Ashley Rhodes-Courter • Grades 8 and up • Biography/Memoir • A powerful memoir about a girl's difficult childhood in the foster care system.

22. Black Boxby Julie Schumacher • Grades 8-12 • Realistic Fiction • When her sixteen-year-old sister is hospitalized for depression and her parents want to keep it a secret, fourteen-year-old Elena tries to cope with her own anxiety and feelings of guilt that she is determined to conceal from outsiders.

23. Elephant Runby Roland Smith • Historical Fiction • Grades 5-8 • Nick endures servitude, beatings, and more after his British father's plantation in Burma is invaded by the Japanese in 1941. When his father and others are taken prisoner, Nick and his friend  plan a daring escape on elephants, risking their lives to save Nick's father and Mya's brother from a Japanese prison camp.

24. Impossibleby Nancy Werlin • Fantasy • Grades 8-12 • When  Lucy discovers her family is under an ancient curse by an evil Elfin Knight, she realizes to break the curse she must perform three impossible tasks before her daughter is born in order to save them both.

25. After Tupac and D. Fosterby Jacqueline Woodson • Realistic Fiction • Grades 6-8 • In the New York City borough of Queens in 1996, three girls bond over their shared love of Tupac Shakur's music, as together they try to make sense of the unpredictable world in which they live.

26. Sweetheartsby Sara Zarr • Realistic Fiction • Grades 9-12 • After losing her friend, Cameron, when they were nine, Jennifer transformed herself from the unpopular fat girl into the beautiful and popular Jenna, but Cameron's unexpected return dredges up memories that cause both social and emotional turmoil.